Jam beyond breakfast: seven ideas for cheese, meat and dessert

A jar of jam usually sits in the fridge next to the butter and is only brought out in the morning. Yet good jam is a kitchen tool: it brings fruit, sweetness and acidity in a single spoonful. With 60 per cent fruit and a short cooking time in the copper kettle – as at Genussmanufaktur Faller – you can still taste that in a sauce. Seven ideas, ordered from apéro to dessert.

1. With cheese: the rule of “contrast or kinship”

Cheese and jam work on two principles. Either contrast: a strong, salty cheese meets a sweet fruit with plenty of acidity. Or kinship: a mild cheese with a fruit that does not cover it up.

• Gruyère or Sbrinz (salty, crystalline) with quince jelly – the combination that is served in Spain as membrillo with Manchego.
• Fresh goat’s cheese with raspberry jam or the strawberry and rhubarb jam: acidity meets acidity, very fresh.
• Blue cheese (Roquefort, Bleu de Gex) with Williams pear with cinnamon – pear and blue cheese are a classic, and the cinnamon makes it wintry.
• Brie or Camembert from the oven with elderberry jam: deep black, slightly bitter, with the nutty note of the elderberry seeds.

For the apéro board, three jars and a spoon per jar are enough. If you want to know more about the cheese board: our mustard guide explains which mustard goes with it.

2. In the game sauce

The classic creamy game sauce gets its depth from lingonberries. Just as good – and less usual in Switzerland – is black cherry jam: a tablespoon into the pan juices of a venison escalope or a deer entrecôte, deglaze with red wine, reduce, stir in a piece of cold butter. The sour cherry jam with Rothaus whisky brings a smoky note with it as well.

3. As a glaze for meat

One tablespoon of damson jam with Lebkuchengewürz, one tablespoon of Senf Pauli “Mord im Orient” and a dash of soy sauce: brush this onto roast pork, duck breast or oven-baked pumpkin in the last ten minutes. The glaze caramelises and turns dark and glossy.

4. Beer jelly with hearty dishes

Faller’s beer jellies are not a gimmick. The Tannenzäpfle jelly with its slightly bitter hop note goes with mountain cheese, bacon and Rösti – a spoonful on the Rösti, a fried egg alongside, and the farmer’s breakfast is ready. The Hefeweizen jelly is milder and fruitier; it goes with Weisswurst and pretzel, for those who like that.

5. In the vinaigrette

A teaspoon of jam emulsifies a vinaigrette almost as well as mustard and brings fruit with it. Recipe for four people: 1 tsp apricot, mango and passion fruit, 2 tbsp white wine vinegar, 5 tbsp rapeseed oil, salt, pepper, a little finely chopped shallot. Goes with lamb’s lettuce and bacon or with beetroot and goat’s cheese.

6. As a quick dessert

• Yoghurt parfait: Greek yoghurt, with blackberry jam and toasted hazelnuts on top.
• Jam sauce for vanilla ice cream: warm two tablespoons of peach jam with vineyard peach with a tablespoon of water or white wine, bring briefly to the boil, over the ice cream.
• Filled Guetzli: for Spitzbuben or Linzer Augen a jam with 60 per cent fruit is ideal, because it does not run out during baking – strawberry, raspberry or damson.

7. In the drink

A teaspoon of apple jelly with bourbon vanilla in hot water with a slice of lemon is an apple punch without sugar cubes. And in winter: damson jam with Lebkuchengewürz in mulled red wine instead of sugar.

What jam needs in the kitchen

Fruit instead of sugar. Jams with a high fruit content give aroma, the others only sweetness. Faller cooks for 12 to 15 minutes in the open copper kettle – that preserves aroma and colour. And: an opened jar keeps for weeks in the fridge, so feel free to have two or three varieties open.

Discover all jams and jellies